Girl Talk
by stardustkr7
Summary: Barbara and Zatanna bond over a snack after a late night mission. Pre Season 2.


_B-0-8 Zatanna, B-0-16 Batgirl_

The two heroines stumbled out of the Zeta beam, pausing in the middle of the Cave to look at each other, both clearly winded.

"You have a branch or something in your hair, by the way," Barbara said after a minute, pointing at Zatanna's left ear.

"Oh," said the magician, pulling out the stray twig tangled up in her black waves. "I wonder how long that was there."

"I, uh, was going to say something earlier but we got side tracked," said Barbara, the corner of her mouth twitching like she was holding back a smile.

Zee frowned. "You mean you let me fight bad guys with a stick in my hair?"

They stared at each other for another moment.

And then they cracked up laughing, probably out of a mix of exhaustion, adrenaline, and bewilderment at working so well together. It was their first mission as just partners and somehow, they managed to make it out alive with one more good story to tell the others later.

"I thought it was a cleverly disguised magic wand," Barbara giggled as they wandered through the Cave to the living room and kitchen. It was late and the hallways were empty.

"I'll use that one next time," said Zatanna, grinning. "I should really wear my hair back like yours. But I don't do masks."

Barbara pulled down her cowl, freeing her own hair and rubbing at the places on her face where the mask started to irritate her skin after too much wear. "That's probably a good thing. They're damn uncomfortable after a while," she complained, sliding onto one of the stools at the counter.

Zatanna managed to locate a hidden container of M'gann's cookies (double chocolate chunk) and set it down in front of Barbara. "Milk to go with the cookies?" she added, opening the fridge.

"Absolutely." She tugged open the Tupperware and started eating one, just now realizing how hungry she was. Hopefully M'gann wouldn't mind them possibly eating all of them in one sitting.

Zee brought over two large glasses of milk and for a couple minutes, they just sat and enjoyed their midnight, after-mission snack in silence. After making a sizeable dent in the container, Barbara started going through the whole night in her mind again. It started the way it always seemed to, just some simple reconnaissance that turned into saving some innocent lives. One wild explosion later and they were making their way back to the team headquarters with nothing but a few scratches.

The redhead started giggling again.

"What's funny now?" Zee asked.

"When we were fighting … those guards… did you like … cast a tickling curse on one of them?" Barbara asked, grinning at her teammate.

Zatanna smirked. "Nothing like taking some inspiration from Harry Potter."

"It was brilliant."

"I admit, I have a weakness," said Zee with a sigh. "All that popular fiction about magic, I know it's all completely wrong… but I still love it. I read every single one I can find."

Barbara grinned, happy to find another bookworm like herself. "I work at the library after school on the days I don't have gymnastics practice."

"Well, I'm not that much of a nerd," Zee teased.

Nudging her playfully with an elbow, Barbara laughed and said, "Hey now! It's a cool place!" She snatched up her fourth (maybe fifth, she lost count) cookie and finished off the glass of milk.

"Gymnastics huh? That explains a lot after watching you fight."

"I did ballet when I was younger too. But I dropped it for jujitsu and then joined the gymnastics team in high school."

"No way, you did ballet? I did tap when I was younger," said Zatanna. "It was fun. I was homeschooled for years because of the magic thing so I made friends through that."

"No Hogwarts letter?"

"Nope, not for me," said the magician with a wistful smile. "I think … that's one of the things I liked best about joining the team. Even though all of you don't have powers… we all have something that separates us from everyone else so it's nice to have a place where we can be ourselves."

"I can't imagine someone like you not able to make friends, Zee. You're hilarious. And you totally had my back tonight," said Barbara.

"Thanks. You too, Babs. I wouldn't want to be on the receiving end on one of those round-house kicks of yours."

Barbara smiled proudly. "I practice."

They fell quiet again, slowing down on the cookies finally.

"I know what you mean though… I was so nervous about joining the team. You all are so close and have a good thing going. It can be hard to adjust that with a new member," said Barbara slowly.

"You? But you fit perfectly. We were always complaining about needing more girls on the team anyway," said Zatanna, raising an eyebrow. "Besides, you already were really good friends with Artemis from school."

"Yeah… we kinda ended up being friends since we're both scholarship kids and in a lot of the same classes," she elaborated. At first, a lot of people thought she went to Gotham Academy because her dad was the Police Commissioner. But Commissioner or not, you don't go to the fancy prep school on a cop's salary. She was lucky to be amongst the rich elite, they told her.

She had been even luckier to finally find a real girlfriend at the school. And still luckier to acquire three more when she joined the team a few months ago.

"I think I'm starting to wind down," said Barbara with a yawn. "We can finish the mission report in the morning."

Zatanna wrinkled her nose at that and placed the lid back on the cookie container. "Right, I hate those."

"Me too."

"We did good tonight, Batgirl," said Zatanna, sliding off the stool to put away the cookies and their glasses.

"Yeah, we did," Barbara agreed, getting to her feet and stretching.

"And thanks again, for having my back. When we were cornered like that, I thought … anyway, you kinda saved my life. So, thanks," said Zee, avoiding the other girl's eye.

"Oh, Zatanna …" If Barbara were honest with herself, Zatanna had been the one she was most worried about getting along with. But they seemed to hit it off and worked together seamlessly. "It's not a big deal. You're my teammate. And my friend."

Zatanna looked up at her and smiled. "Yeah, I guess you're right."


End file.
